This is the last letter we have met with from the illustrious Bishop of Killaloe, Dr. O’Melrian. His episcopate continued till 1617; yet the only event recorded concerning him during this long interval is his having examined the work of Stanihurst, _De Moribus et Rebus Hiberniae_, and on the margin opposite each error his solemn condemnation was found marked with the simple formula: _mentitur_ (_Hist. Cath._, pag. 121). As regards the bishops of the Establishment, that of _James Curyn_, or _Corrin_, seems to have been the first appointment made by King Henry VIII. Some call him Bishop of Killaloe as early as 1529, during the episcopate of Dr. Hogan; others date his appointment from 1539/40. At all events it is probable he is the bishop that is referred to in the letter of Dr. Browne to Lord Cromwell on 16th February, 1539/40, when he complains that the Lord Deputy _in O’Brien’s country_ “deposed a bishop who was promoted by the king’s highness, ... and he that the Lord Deputy hath now promoted to the same is a Gray Friar (Dr. O’Kirwan), one of the holy confessors of the late Garrantys, even as rank a traitor as ever they were” (_State Papers_, iii. 123). Dr. Corrin resigned the see in 1546, and Cornelius O’Dea was appointed by the king in July, the same year, and, as Ware tells us, he held the see about nine years. The next crown nominee was Moriertach O’Brien. Though appointed by Queen Elizabeth in 1570, he was for a long time content with the enjoyment of the temporalities of the see, and it was only in 1577 that he received episcopal consecration. John Rider, the next Protestant bishop, was appointed in 1612: he is chiefly remarkable for a Latin dictionary which he compiled, and in which he was accused of taking both the substance and words from the Lexicon of Thomas Thomatius. THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE IN THE EARLY IRISH CHURCH. The name _Soul’s-friend_ (in Irish,) was a characteristic title used in the old Irish language to designate those who are now called _confessors_, whose mission it is to receive the confessions of the faithful and to heal by the sacrament of penance, the spiritual wounds inflicted on the soul after baptism. “Sure we are”, writes Usher, “that it was the custom of the faithful in our ancient Church, to confess their sins to the priests, that they might be made partakers of the benefit of the keys for the quieting of their troubled consciences”—_Discourse on the Religion, etc._, p. 46.